Be careful with the interests of fast loans.

Main risks and precautions to take into account when contracting quick credits

To organize vacations, buy a car, reform the house … There are many reasons why anyone can decide to ask for a quick loan. It is a financial product that provides liquidity instantly and can be returned easily, in small monthly installments.

Abusive interests and usury

First of all, it should be clarified that not all quick loans carry real risks for users. In recent times we have witnessed an avalanche of claims for what is known as credits or revolving cards. And those that have been accepted by justice are those cases in which the credit involved abusive interests, which could even be described as usury.

Some companies specialized in claims to financial institutions and airlines recommend paying attention to two basic aspects to know how to distinguish an abusive credit from one that is not: “the most important thing is for the client to be clear on how much that fast credit will cost, and for this it is essential to know the APR of the product and if there are other types of clauses, such as the capitalization of interest, commissions for debt positions, interest for late payments .

Since 2015, fast loan clients cornered by debt that they cannot pay have had a clear legal way out. At that time “the Supreme Court established as a doctrine that twice the” normal “price of money, when contracting the loan, can be considered usury.” Therefore, if the financial institution does not prove in those cases the existence of exceptional circumstances that justify this excessively high interest rate, the rapid credit could be declared null and void.

An endless debt spiral

A very particular case of usury is that which has been carried out by some companies that sell revolving cards or credits. The clients who hired them, in most cases by phone and almost immediately, ended up in an endless debt spiral, from which it was almost impossible to get out without the corresponding legal advice.

In these cases, “the interests generate new interests, creating a spiral of unpayable debt, which has multiplied in a short time and whose solution is not to continue paying quotas that have no end.”

As if this were not enough, when the client affected by an abusive credit stops paying a fee, “an operation of telephone and postal harassment by the financiers begins, even with threats of inclusion in delinquent files.”

The nullity of the loan as the only way out

If someone is the victim of a fast loan with abusive interests, no matter how much they continue to pay the loan installments, it is very likely that it will not solve the problem. As some explain, “at such low rates, interest rates are hidden so high in their composition that they practically do not allow part of the capital owed to be amortized.”

Therefore, the only solution is to complain. And the good news is that the success rate is very high. “Courts are supporting clients’ thesis across the board and, since 2015, case law has turned in favor of the consumer.”

If the judge agrees with the user, the contract will be declared null and the debt will disappear. In addition, the entity that granted the quick loan must return to the client all the amounts paid as interest. That is, the client would only have to return the money they loaned him, recovering everything he has overpaid.